Dr. Armando Castro has joined the leadership team at South Shore University Hospital as the Chairman in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Castro also serves as the Senior Vice President and Regional Ambulatory Physician Executive in the Eastern Region as well as the System Vice Chair for the Surgery Service Line. Formerly, Dr. Castro was the Chair for the Department of Surgery at Long Island Jewish - Forest Hills, the Vice President of Surgical Services in the Central Region, as well as the Associate Regional Ambulatory Physician Executive in the Central Region. Dr. Castro was born in Cuba, and grew up in Los Angeles, where he received his undergraduate degree from UCLA. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and completed his general surgery training at The New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. He completed a fellowship at SUNY Downstate/Lutheran Medical Center in Advanced Minimally-Invasive Surgery and Bariatric Surgery, which has been his clinical focus during his 15 years in practice in Queens and Brooklyn. His clinical interests include all aspects of general surgery, with expertise in minimally invasive, robotic and advanced laparoscopic gastrointestinal and weight loss surgery, and in the comprehensive surgical care of patients with obesity. His clinical passion is driven by the relationships he builds with his patients on their journey to health.Dr. Castro is a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and a Fellow of the American Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery and the American College of Surgeons. He is on the Board of Directors and is presently the Secretary-Treasurer of the Brooklyn-Long Island Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and is also the Chair of the chapter s Committee on Applicants. He has held numerous leadership positions during his career, including Vice Chair of Surgery and Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Lutheran Medical Center, as well as the Director of Inpatient Performance Improvement and Vice Chair for Surgical Education at New York Presbyterian Hospital Queens.Prior to joining the faculty at Northwell Health, he was on faculty at NYU School of Medicine, where he was the Program Director for the General Surgery residency program at NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn. He has also been on faculty at the Weill Cornell Medical College as the General Surgery Residency Program Director at New York Presbyterian Queens. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Castro is passionate about surgical education, and has earned many teaching awards from his residents. He has authored numerous surgical abstracts and publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented at several national surgical meetings and is a reviewer for Surgical Endoscopy and Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.Dr. Castro is fluent in Spanish and is available for surgical consultations at Northwell Health Physician Partners at 250 E. Main Street, Bay Shore, NY 11706